In-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems are becoming ubiquitous. A driver can listen to music, news, and other audio content from the IVI head unit. In addition, a driver can personalize the IVI head unit for favorite content, navigation history, or vehicle telematics, and the like. Some IVI systems include additional entertainment system for each passenger, such as on the seat back, the roof, or the like. A passenger can even watch video and play games on those systems. At the same time, vehicle controls are also highly customizable to individual driver or passengers, enabling a vehicle to store a seat position, a steering wheel position, mirror positions, radio stations, temperature settings, and the like for one or more users of the vehicle. These advancements have given rise to the development of “connected car” systems that communicate with “cloud” services and provide a high degree of vehicle customization for each occupant.
Mobile payment systems are also becoming ubiquitous. Mobile payment systems are usually designed for smartphones and other wearable devices, such as a smart watch. In some special cases (e.g., highway toll collections, drive-through stores, and the like), the mobile payment system is designed for a car while the driver stays in the car. While this works well in many cases, there is a major limitation for vehicle applications, namely payment sharing. All current mobile payment systems are designed for a single person (the payer) to pay per transaction. But in many instances, it is desirable to share the payment among several people. This is frequently the case for a group of people in the same car.
For example, a group of friends may want to share payments when driving to a national park, passing through a toll bridge, or picking up lunch at a drive-through restaurant. In some cases, the vehicle occupants may be responsible for an equal share of a payment (e.g., parking fees, bridge tolls, admission fees). In other cases, each occupant may be responsible for paying for the items he or she purchased, such as paying for lunches from a drive-through restaurant.
Current mobile payment systems are not capable of sharing payments because these systems are designed for a single payer and/or single vehicle, not for a group of payers. The current systems have no ability to determine the identities of vehicle occupants autonomously, so there is no way to deliver the payment request to each occupant easily.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved methods and apparatuses for accepting multiple payments from multiple vehicle occupants. More particularly, there is a need for methods and apparatuses for sharing the cost of a purchase between multiple occupants of a vehicle.